A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.
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"On top of its 2018 budget
of $55,000, the nonprofit has raised an additional $40,000 to increase
capacity over the next two years. One idea on the table: funding a
full-time reporting position at the [weekly] Rappahannock News, which co-publishes the Forum’s projects," David Westphal reports for Columbia Journalism Review.

Retired newspaper and Knight Foundation executive Larry "Bud" Meyer, chairman of the Forum board, told Westphal that other communities of the same size might interested in copying their model.

Nonprofit local news isn't a new concept, but its success has been spotty. One of the most prominent, Voice of San Diego, has been around for a decade and has a budget of $1.64 million. Charlottesville Tomorrow and the New Haven Independent are also doing well, but only 30 of the Institute for Nonprofit News's 127 members are dedicated strictly to local news.

"The reasons are many and well reported—unpredictable foundation funding,
dashed expectations for digital advertising, local markets too small to
produce sufficient individual philanthropy," Westphal reports. "Many founders of local
nonprofits also have waited too long to establish solid business
operations."

But Foothills Forum has dodged the odds, and has a long list of possible projects it might tackle next, like the county's transportation issues, the need for new job opportunities for under-40 residents, and a package celebrating area residents' love of volunteering.

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About The Rural Blog

This blog generally follows traditional journalistic standards. It's not about opinions, though you may read one here occasionally. It's about facts that we think will be useful to rural journalists, non-rural journalists who do rural stories, and others interested in rural issues. We don't try to be provocative, so we don't generate as many comments as most blogs with the level of traffic we have, but we certainly invite comments -- and contributions, to al.cross@uky.edu. Feel free to republish blog items, with credit to us and the original source.